“Obviously, we all want to win now. Our owner only cares about two things: his granddaughter and winning a title. Dwight is at that stage where there’s nothing to accomplish but winning a title. I’m hungry; I’m in my eighth year and we’ve only advanced once. So while, logically, you know that younger teams that come together — and we’re the youngest team in the playoffs — take longer to win. We logically get that, but we’re all impatient emotionally.”

The Rockets are on the brink of Playoff elimination as they host the Blazers tonight. The organization has done a lot of rebuilding and had its sights squarely on a championship Wednesday. The pieces did not quite come together this year.

Add on top of that the crumbling legacy of Dwight Howard, who now stares down his fourth straight first-round exit. Things are not looking good for the Rockets.